Abstract
The carnivoran giant panda has a specialized bamboo diet, to which its alimentary tract is poorly adapted. Measurements of daily energy expenditure across five captive and three wild pandas averaged 5.2 megajoules (MJ)/day, only 37.7% of the predicted value (13.8 MJ/day). For the wild pandas, the mean was 6.2 MJ/day, or 45% of the mammalian expectation. Pandas achieve this exceptionally low expenditure in part by reduced sizes of several vital organs and low physical activity. In addition, circulating levels of thyroid hormones thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3) averaged 46.9 and 64%, respectively, of the levels expected for a eutherian mammal of comparable size. A giant panda-unique mutation in the DUOX2 gene, critical for thyroid hormone synthesis, might explain these low thyroid hormone levels. A combination of morphological, behavioral, physiological, and genetic adaptations, leading to low energy expenditure, likely enables giant pandas to survive on a bamboo diet.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 171-174 |
| Number of pages | 4 |
| Journal | Science |
| Volume | 349 |
| Issue number | 6244 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 10 Jul 2015 |
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Keywords
- Animals
- Base Sequence
- Body Temperature
- Cattle
- Chromosomes, Human, Pair 15
- Diet
- Dogs
- Eating
- Energy Metabolism
- Gastrointestinal Tract
- Genetic Variation
- Humans
- Mice
- Molecular Sequence Data
- Motor Activity
- NADPH Oxidase
- Organ Size
- Sasa
- Thyroxine
- Triiodothyronine
- Ursidae
Cite this
Exceptionally low daily energy expenditure in the bamboo-eating giant panda. / Nie, Yonggang; Speakman, John R; Wu, Qi; Zhang, Chenglin; Hu, Yibo; Xia, Maohua; Yan, Li; Hambly, Catherine; Wang, Lu; Wei, Wei; Zhang, Jinguo; Wei, Fuwen.
In: Science, Vol. 349, No. 6244, 10.07.2015, p. 171-174.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Exceptionally low daily energy expenditure in the bamboo-eating giant panda
AU - Nie, Yonggang
AU - Speakman, John R
AU - Wu, Qi
AU - Zhang, Chenglin
AU - Hu, Yibo
AU - Xia, Maohua
AU - Yan, Li
AU - Hambly, Catherine
AU - Wang, Lu
AU - Wei, Wei
AU - Zhang, Jinguo
AU - Wei, Fuwen
N1 - Copyright © 2015, American Association for the Advancement of Science. Acknowledgments: We thank X. Wang, Y. Jin, W. Zhou, T. Pu, X. Wang, L. Shan, S. Ma, W. Du, Z. Tan, M. Wang, X. Zheng, H. Han, D. Wang, and T. Ma for help with the data collection and P. Thompson for technical assistance with the isotope analysis. We also thank the Foping Nature Reserve and Beijing Zoo for their assistance on this study. This work was supported jointly and equally by the Key Project of National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant 31230011) and the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (grant XDB13030000). The thermal image camera used for the dairy cow images was on loan from the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council equipment loan pool. The physiological and other data are presented in the supplementary materials. The genetic data have been deposited in the National Center for Biotechnology Information database with accession number KT000656.
PY - 2015/7/10
Y1 - 2015/7/10
N2 - The carnivoran giant panda has a specialized bamboo diet, to which its alimentary tract is poorly adapted. Measurements of daily energy expenditure across five captive and three wild pandas averaged 5.2 megajoules (MJ)/day, only 37.7% of the predicted value (13.8 MJ/day). For the wild pandas, the mean was 6.2 MJ/day, or 45% of the mammalian expectation. Pandas achieve this exceptionally low expenditure in part by reduced sizes of several vital organs and low physical activity. In addition, circulating levels of thyroid hormones thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3) averaged 46.9 and 64%, respectively, of the levels expected for a eutherian mammal of comparable size. A giant panda-unique mutation in the DUOX2 gene, critical for thyroid hormone synthesis, might explain these low thyroid hormone levels. A combination of morphological, behavioral, physiological, and genetic adaptations, leading to low energy expenditure, likely enables giant pandas to survive on a bamboo diet.
AB - The carnivoran giant panda has a specialized bamboo diet, to which its alimentary tract is poorly adapted. Measurements of daily energy expenditure across five captive and three wild pandas averaged 5.2 megajoules (MJ)/day, only 37.7% of the predicted value (13.8 MJ/day). For the wild pandas, the mean was 6.2 MJ/day, or 45% of the mammalian expectation. Pandas achieve this exceptionally low expenditure in part by reduced sizes of several vital organs and low physical activity. In addition, circulating levels of thyroid hormones thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3) averaged 46.9 and 64%, respectively, of the levels expected for a eutherian mammal of comparable size. A giant panda-unique mutation in the DUOX2 gene, critical for thyroid hormone synthesis, might explain these low thyroid hormone levels. A combination of morphological, behavioral, physiological, and genetic adaptations, leading to low energy expenditure, likely enables giant pandas to survive on a bamboo diet.
KW - Animals
KW - Base Sequence
KW - Body Temperature
KW - Cattle
KW - Chromosomes, Human, Pair 15
KW - Diet
KW - Dogs
KW - Eating
KW - Energy Metabolism
KW - Gastrointestinal Tract
KW - Genetic Variation
KW - Humans
KW - Mice
KW - Molecular Sequence Data
KW - Motor Activity
KW - NADPH Oxidase
KW - Organ Size
KW - Sasa
KW - Thyroxine
KW - Triiodothyronine
KW - Ursidae
U2 - 10.1126/science.aab2413
DO - 10.1126/science.aab2413
M3 - Article
C2 - 26160943
VL - 349
SP - 171
EP - 174
JO - Science
JF - Science
SN - 0036-8075
IS - 6244
ER -